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Supported by a grant from the Federal Office of Culture (BAK), the project aims to research and make public the provenance of all new acquisitions made by the Collection of Prints and Drawings from 1933 to 1950.

During that period, the Collection of Prints and Drawings grew by some 10,000 works on paper, received either as gifts or as acquisitions. The provenance of these single pieces and groups of works is often only incompletely traceable using the inventory available. The aim of the present project is to research as clearly as possible the provenance of such works acquired during the period from 1933 to 1945 and to determine whether individual pieces came from particular sources (galleries, auction houses, private sellers) suspected of having dealt in art looted under National Socialism.

The scientific research project is being conducted in the Collection of Prints and Drawings at the Kunsthaus with the originals and relevant documentation from the archives. It also includes additional research and collaboration with other such collections in Swiss and international museums.